Continuous heating furnace



Patented Mar.18,1941 y UNITED STATES. PATENT OFFICE ooNTINUoUs HEATING FURNACE George R. McDermott, Ottawa Hills, hio, assignor to Surface Combustion Corporation, Toledo, hio, a corporation of New York Application @nicher 23, i939, Serial No. 300,685 l tllairn. (m.-2636) The present invention relates to` a continuous beam thereby permittingy two independent rows heating furnace having a soaking chamber at of work pieces 'to be passed through the furnace. one end of a heating chamberfurnaces oi this ln accordance with the present invention the 'type being employed for heating work pieces to walking beam comprises a pair of lift rails 2li, forging or rolling temperatures. a row of inverted U-shape pedestals 2t for each The object of the presentV invention is to prorail, and a platfOlm 0n Which the DedeStaS vide for the conveying oi the wort: pieces through arel Supported. It will be understood that the the heating chamber and for the pushing of said walking beam is reciprocated bothlongitudinally pieces into the soaking chamber from a point and vertically. The means for reciprocating the lo adjacent the discharge end of the heating chamwalking beam may be 0f any preferred type and 10 ber. More particularly it is the object oi the iniS here ShOWl'l aS COIIlPriSng a horizontally mOi/'- Wmion to provide a Walking beam conveyor able undercarriage it on which are inclined blocks which sha1] be particularly Well adapted for conil on which ride rollers tt carried by the platform rveyng Work pieces through the heating chamber td. To raise and lower the walking beam the and for WOZ-k pieces into the soaking platform is against longitudinal IHOVS- chamber from the adjacent end oi the heating ment While the Carriage 2@ is moved baCk and Chamber. other more Specmc objects Wm more forth as by a cylinder til and to move the beam fully www hereinafter. horizontally the platform it and the carriage mi in the accompanying drawing wherein the am moved a? a um as by :at Cylinder 3W 2@ preferred form oi the invention is shown: 'In the @mulder arrangement Shown the Cym 20 Fig. l is ayertical longitudinal section with esrrrmg we titsrea plfenedfggggglejno'lpeatmg which Vforms part of 'a slidable carriage si from F1. g 2 is a, mgmentmy sectomd View on line 4which rises a standard or standards lill which is M E 2 connected by a link or linlrstt to the adjacent 25 of Fig. 2, the View showing only one-hall of l th@ width Op the ummm end Eof the walking beam platform 2b. The cylinlis. 3 is a fragmentary sectional View of a de=. fill-R93? dig txtip ge ggg, tlse 31;

tail, the View being taken on line l-ti oi' Fig. l;

3m Fig. 4 is a fragmentary Side elevation Uf a. dem cross piece tt which forms part of the extended 50 chamber is a plurality of laterally spaced piers or as at 40" to upright extensions 24? of the lower ro wir end of the undercarriage iii. Welded to the top of each lift rail '23 is a wear Fe'- 5 1S a Piani/16W 0f Flgt and strip ai. The lift rails are tubular and depending 6 is a dlag am 'of rtam movements of the from the leading end of each rail is a depending walking beam.

tubular post t3' topermit the passage oi cooling The furnace comprises a main mating Chamber water therethrough. Each pedestal 2t consists oi it, aSOakilflg hambl' i .llpper and 10W@ burners a pair of radially-spaced upright tubes it@ 35 it and it tiring into the Chamber It by Why 0f mounted at their lower ends in saddlestt secured upper and lower rlns ports M and .l5 mld d. to the platform 25 and cross connected at their burner it firme into the seeking chamber ler war wps by a tubmar connection 2in to permit @001mg 4G, 0f a leert il, it belng understood that there 1S il water to be flowed from one tube to` the next. ,m row of each 0f Said burners and DOIS and limi As a further protection against overheating, the the purpose 0f the seeking Chamber is te allow. the parts are covered with a, heat insulating refractemperature of the work pieces to become equaltory material 38 held in place by radial pins 3a ized after having been passed through the heaton the tubular members.

ing chamber I0. A side door i8 in the soaking In order that the cooling water may be flowed 45 chamber serves for the removal of the work pieces. through thepedestals 24 in succession, the lower Extending upwardly from the floor of the heatends lof adjacent tubes 24U of `adjacent. pedestals Y ing chamber longitudinally thereof from this are cross connected by tubular elements 2t.

charge end I9 to the hearth 20 of the soaking As shown in Fig. 2 the tubes 24U may be welded tracks 2| whereonthe work pieces (indicated atW cross connection 24', the cross connections in in Fig. 2) are supported when they are not supsuch case being seated in and welded to the sadported on the liftralls of a walking beam gendles 40. I'he floor of the heating chamber is erally indicated at 22. As shown :ln- Fig. 2 each provided with slots 4| through which the legs half of the furnace mayv have its own walking ot the pedestals 2d extend and these slots are cov- 55 the said legs extend.

The use of inverted U-shape pedestals 24 for supporting the lifting rails 23 is an important feature of the invention because in addition to being of simple construction and therefore relatively inexpensive to make, they give to the walking beam as a whole a certain degree of resiliency in a longitudinal direction which is very desirable in absorbing shock resulting from the stopping of the beam at the ends of itslstroke. Such longitudinal bracing as may be required is provided outside of the heating chamber by struts and 5l. A

In accordance with the present invention the walking beam 22 not only serves to transport the work pieces towards the hearth 20 but also to push the work pieces onto the hearth from a point adjacent the front end of the same. The mode of operation is best described in connection with Fig. 6. In this figure the walking beam is in elevated position and at the forward end of its stroke. The full stroke of the beam may be considered as the distance between the points a and b. As the walking beam moved from point a to b the work piece or pieces W already on the track 2| in advance of the beam were pushed forward as the beam advanced. Having advanced to the limit of its forward motion the beam may be lowered and moved back to the position shown by the broken-line rectangle c from which position it is moved upwardly and then forwardly as will now be readily understood. However, before the walking beam is lowered from its forward limit of movement it Vis preferred that it be moved rearwardly a relatively short distance, say to the point d, before it is lowered. By thus causing the beam to move rearwardly to the point d before being lowered, rubbing of the front end of the beam against the nearest work piece which was pushed is avoided and it is assured that said particular work piece will not interfere with the proper lowering of the foremost work piece on the walking beam a's the latter is lowered, and less attention need be paid to the spacing of the work pieces on the walking beam at the charge end of the furnace. It will be readily appreciated that the partial return movement of the walking beam may be readily accomplished by admitting a small tween the walking beam and the undercarriage 26.

In order to prevent damage to front end of thel walking beam and more particularly the downcomer 23' of the lifting rail, a wear or pusher head 43 is secured to the upper corner of the beam as will be readily understood by reference to Figs. 4 and 5.

What I claim is:

A furnace for the heating of metal objects to forging or rolling temperatures comprising an elongated chamber defined in part by a floor which at the front end of the chamber is at a higher level than at the rear end thereof and a rear end wall having an opening a substantial distance above the lowest level 4of the floor for the exit of heated objects from the chamber, means forming a trackway leading from said opening to the front end of the chamber for supporting the objects to be heated at a level above said oor, means including burners firing into saidI chamber through said wall at a level below said opening for heating the objects supported on the trackway, and means for pushing the objects toward said opening from a point intermediate the ends of the chamber and for bodily conveying the objects to said point from the front end of the chamber, said means comprising a vertically and horizontally movable elongated support underlying the floor of the chamber in parallelism with said trackway, a plurality of laterally spaced zo l rows of longitudinally spaced pedestals mounted on said support and extending upwardly into said chamber through the floor thereof, an elongated member mounted on top of each row of pedestals, and said pedestals each consisting of a pair of radially-spaced upright tubes and a tubular cross connection between the upper ends of the tubes to permit cooling uid to be owed from one tube to the next.

GEORGE R. McDERMOTT. 

